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by archimag0 3661 days ago
- Can't have the compiler side by side with the debugger, even though there's plenty of room on the screen

- When the PC jumps, the highlighted instruction doesn't follow, leaving you lost when stepping through a program

- Can't hit enter on a blank line to repeat previous command

- No 'finish' debugger command?

- Seem to end up in random functions when stepping over simple instructions

- Am I supposed to type 'flash' or 'run' to execute my compiled program? Sometimes the one I just compiled gets executed, sometimes the one I compiled previously - how can we view what's being executed?

I really enjoyed microcorruption, and thought that UI was fine, but this feels like a step backwards.

1 comments

Enter on blank lines: easy enough, will do.

Putting the compiler in the debugger was how it used to work. Everyone hated it. Also: it's using Ace, which really grinds Chrome. I can easily add a pure textarea tab that will let you edit code, if you _really_ want it.

To run a C program, do one of two things:

* Compile it in the source editor, which will generate a blob of compiler output (which is deliberately not documented) that the browser will cache.

* Use the "flash" command to write it to SPI flash.

* Use the "vmload" command to send a SPI message to the AVR to reload the program from the SPI flash.

* Use the "vmexec" command to send a SPI message to the AVR to execute the program.

OR

* Compile it in the source editor

* Type "run", which does all the rest of those things.

I like Microcorruption's UI, too. I gave this one more to do. I agree: it's not there yet! Working on it. How elaborate do you want the web-based debugger built on this API to be? :)

(I'm serious: thanks for the feedback. This section of the thread is the stuff I was hoping to get).

Thanks for replying - I just wanted to dive in and get stuck into the levels, but found the UI so confusing that I just gave up - particularly as someone with no AVR experience, and with the tutorial dying half way through.

The biggest pain point was figuring out what was executing. As I mentioned, I would be playing around in the compiler, hit compile and save, and then attempt to run it in the debugger. The 'run' command either seemed to have no effect, or would run a previously compiled program, not the one I'd just written. Even typing 'reset' didn't help.

The memory didn't seem to be updating in real time either, which made things even more confusing!

Running in Firefox if that makes a difference.